Syria: IS destroys mosque in Kobane before withdrawing

Fighters from the Islamic State group (IS, formerly known as ISIS) destroyed the Hajj Rashad Mosque in Kobane on Sunday, before withdrawing to the south of the city. 

IS fighters then clashed with the Syrian-Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Free Syrian Army in the Kanya Orban neighbourhood near the destroyed mosque, and in to the south and the west of the city. There has been no verifiable reports of the scale of damage or losses incurred by either side.

The US-led alliance against IS has also launched air attacks on IS locations over the past two days. Shurfan Kobani, an inner-city fighter, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that aircraft bombed several urban and rural locations. 

The US-led alliance against IS has launched air attacks on IS locations over the past two days.

Kurdish forces had also been heavily shelling the countryside west of Kobane [AR], London-based opposition group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday morning.

The YPG's media office issued a statement saying that: "Units had reclaimed some areas of the city from mercenaries." The statement said Borkan al-Forat ["Euphrates Volcano"] forces allied with the Free Syrian Army and Peshmerga troops had supported the YPG-led assaults.

On Saturday, the city's defence forces regained control of the inner-city Kobane neighbourhood of Shariaa, a former IS stronghold.

This article is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.